F1: Smaller teams oppose cut in practice

Formula 1's smaller teams are not convinced that a push to reduce Friday running will help the drive to lower costs.

F1's top teams in the Strategy Group have agreed a move to implement a tweak to the Friday format, which could result in just a single 90-minute session taking place late in the afternoon. While they are convinced that costs will be reduced, a number of teams not involved in the Strategy Group are not so sure.

"From Force India's perspective, we don't see this as cost-saving at all," Force India's technical director Andrew Green said. "For us, we've always looked to use the FP1 session to blood in some new drivers and that was an income stream for us and if we lose that, that's going to be a relatively severe blow, which, in turn, will have an impact on our technical ability so in that respect, I don't think it's cost-saving."

Sauber's Giampaolo Dall'ara added: "I can't judge on the cost-saving side which is out of my area but technically, for a team like ours, the time at the track is very precious. Obviously we are more limited than other teams in simulation as a broad concept, so time on track is extremely important for us."

The bigger teams are sticking to their belief that the reduction in running can be framed in a way that will help all teams.

"I think the rationale is to reduce the workload on the cars significantly through the weekend and also to reduce the consumption of parts," Mercedes executive director Paddy Lowe said. "Particularly power units, which is one of the major costs for all the teams, but that's a particular burden for the smaller teams.

"That was the concept. It's still to be finalised, by the way, so there's a whole month in order to determine the small print and to finally approve it but the concept was to save money. If teams are feeling it isn't going to save money, then of course it could be reviewed."